LOS ANGELES — “WE LOVE YOU, CONRAD!”
It’s a Wednesday night at the Videre Rooftop Restaurant & Bar, and it’s rowdy. A bar more known for poolside drinks and views of the Hollywood sign, where people would usually be found chit-chatting over loud music, is showing the newest episode of Amazon Prime’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” the television series based on author Jenny Han’s popular young adult books.
“Get off our screens, Jeremiah!”
It’s hard to go a few minutes without the crowd hurling jeers or cheers at the fictional characters that the show centers around: Isabel “Belly” Conklin (Lola Tung), and brothers Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) and Conrad Fisher (Christopher Briney), childhood friends who find themselves entangled in a messy love triangle as they grow older.
“Really, Belly?”
Such is the passion from a fan base that has grown so intense over the years that Amazon Prime had to issue a public service announcement on its social media pages, warning fans not to bully the actors. The show’s finale drops on Wednesday, and already fans are speculating that Amazon and Han will have some kind of surprise in store, possibly more episodes.
Maybe it’s not the best show (it’s got a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes’ critics score and a 62% audience score), but it has resonated in a way few shows do in the streaming era, inspiring fans to seek out watch parties and congregate online.
“To be honest, I’ve seen better shows,” said Caterina Monaco, 25, who came to Videre with a friend. “But I feel like it’s become a communal experience, the thing you watch every week.”
Han’s books already had a large fanbase. But in 2022, after the first season debuted, the series transcended into the mainstream. It became the No. 1 show on Prime in its premiere weekend, Variety reported at the time. Within three weeks, the hashtag #TheSummerITurnedPretty had amassed more than 1.3 billion views on TikTok. All three of Han’s books in the series also shot to the top of the Amazon Bestsellers’ list.
Watch parties have also become a clear indicator that a show has become part of the cultural zeitgeist. Popular series like HBO’s “Game of Thrones” as well as other reality franchises like “Vanderpump Rules” have drawn in big crowds for similar events. More recently, dating reality shows like “Love Island USA“ have also inspired communal events.
But few have built a fanbase quite as intense as this one. The fear of cast members getting harassed stems from the fervent fan discourse around “Team Conrad” or “Team Jeremiah.”
The social media platform Threads said there are nearly 40% more posts about Conrad than Jeremiah, according to a spokesperson for Meta. Meanwhile, the streaming service Spotify said on Tuesday that “The Summer I Turned Pretty” prompted fans to turn “love triangles into the soundtrack of their summer,” with more than 15,000 users creating Conrad-related playlists and nearly 4,000 Jeremiah-related playlists.
The show has become such a prominent topic on social media that brands, celebrities and athletes have gotten in on the debate.
Delta, for example, garnered over 200,000 likes and reshares of its Instagram post about seats the airline would assign the boys (Conrad was in first class, and Jeremiah was the toilet). And several NFL teams, including the Los Angeles Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs, shared hilarious videos on TikTok of players responding to the question about which Fisher brother they support. (Spoiler: Unsurprisingly, not many of them knew what they were even being asked about.)
Though the plot follows the highs and lows of teenage romance, the show has generated a fandom that spans across age groups. Members of older generations, such as “elder” millennials in their 30s, compared the love triangle plot to other popular culture stories of their time, including “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games.”
“It brings back the nostalgia of my youth,” said Evelin Munguia, 35, who was sipping on a themed drink at Videra’s watch party called the “Love Triangle,” a reference to the show’s storyline and a popular trope in romance books, shows and movies.
Munguia likened the millennial women’s love for Conrad’s character to the passion her generation had for young Leonardo DiCaprio during his “Titanic” era, citing various social media posts that compare Briney to the Oscar-winner.
(DiCaprio appears to be at least somewhat aware of the debate: Warner Bros. on Tuesday released an Instagram video of “One Battle After Another” star Chase Infiniti sharing a video message addressed to Han in which she says she and DiCaprio are both Team Conrad.)
The show is “a bit chaotic, and kind of reminds you of what you went through personally,” she added. “Now, we’re far removed from the chaos, but still like tapping into it in a fictional way.”
Others at the party who spoke to NBC News said their love for the show is rooted in how it celebrates the coming of age of women.
“This is for the girls,” said Teresa Phan, 29, who attended the Videre viewing party with a few of her friends. “Why do men get together and watch all the sports? This is our sport.”
Nia Barange, 23, said the show appeals to her because of “the drama of it all.”
“Like flip-flopping between brothers? That’s crazy,” she added.
Barange is also drawn to Belly. As an Asian American, Barange said she admires that Han always features main characters who are diverse.
“Even though Belly is so infuriating as a character, she’s also just really relatable in the way she makes decisions,” said Barange. “A lot of characters we see are so developed into who they are, but she’s just messy. She’s young, and I can forgive it because I see some things in here that I get.”
Monaco said she finally understands why her brother and dad get “hyped” watching sporting matches. Now, she’s the one who is pushing Claudia Passarella and their other friends to get to the venue early to make sure they “get good spots” at the watch party.
Passarella identifies as more of a fangirl of the series — saying she “truly fell in love with Conrad.”
“It’s relatable,” she said. “Everyone has fallen in love with a Conrad in their lives.”